#donizetti200

On Friday I woke up at 3 a.m. (Italian time) andgot to Bergamo by 8:30 a.m. I had an appointment with Levy Sekgapane at 11 a.m., but he hasn’t appeared. That was a funny experience, since we agreed to meet outside, and it started raining.

I headed to Città alta to get my press tickets, but box office was closed, that’s predictable.

Levy called at 12:30, complaining that he got home at 5 a.m. and overslept, so ok, we’re all young people.

We agreed to meet at 5 p.m., before the performance.

Than Ildar Abdrazakov wrote, that will be waiting for me at 4:30 p.m. (in 2 hours) by La Scala entrace. That was a crisis. I knew I would never manage to be back even for the evening performance of Enrico di Bargogna. So I declained. And that’s the hardest moment of this trip.

The interview with Levy was very different from what we’ve got with Lisette Oropesa, again predictable. Nothing will probably be that good ;) But I managed to lead it to some relevant topics, so hopefully I’ll do it right.

And later (8:30 p.m. — hate them) I got to Teatro Sociale, took my ticket and booklet (in Italian only ;)) and after 20 min waiting for doors open under the rain, went to the performance, being absolutely exhausted.

But this production quickened me. That was a thing! The director Silvia Paoli is very young, I guess, my age. And she is exactly what the industry needs.

Her task was to revive an old and already forgotten very first (of performed) or third (of written) opera by Gaetano Donizetti. But she definitely never wanted to do just that. She put loads more sense in it. She made it relevant. Funny. Ironical. Critical. At the same time, she kept it beautiful, fairy and pleasant to perform. Wow!

Singers were also very good. My new favorite is bass-barotone Luca Tittoto (joker Gilberto). Fabulous. Big, deep, colorful voice. Another big voice tenor Francesco Castoro as Pietro. Stable and stong dramatic voice. Enrico — mezzo Anna Bonitatibus was good and kept her voice deep and loud ‘till the very end. Levy himself was quite lovely, but Bel canto tenors are definitely not my type. Sonia Ganassi ia another big voice, loved her.

Chorus did great. So did Baroque style orchestra. Alessandro De Marchi is probably a genius, otherwise I have no idea why ROH, Met, BSO and other don’t perform Enrico di Borgogna every week, so beautifully it was sung and played.